barefoot99 wrote:on 32's in 1985 or 86 they switched to 1.5 to 1 velvet drive transmissions. All the 32's before(1970- 1984) that and most smaller M's have the 1 to 1 and run a 14 " prop. Both shaft sizes were used.
The 1.5 to1 run a 16" prop (1985- 1991) . A lot of 1:1 trans run the 1.25" shaft on the 32 model, not sure about a 28.
I believe I also looked at this boat about 7 years ago at Caney Creek marina on Watts Bar
Good luck M's rock !
I understand ratios but is there any benefits to one over the other. The reason for the question is: we are planning at least a half "loop" trip in the near future. I'm wanting to be able to do a slow cruise so we can soak up the experience and the sights, get decent fuel economy but be able to kick it up a notch if necessary ( storm, sickness, emergency, ETC.). I've heard dual engines are preferable but the only reason I've heard so far is for docking and redundancy. I believe for my purposes a single would be fine but either will work for me. I really have no cruiser experience so forgive my ignorance, I'm attempting to fix that. My only experience so far is with a number of smaller runabout's and a 34' Drifter houseboat we tooled around on Lake Allatoona with for 10 years--they were all outboards.